Earlier today via Steam, an all new DLC was released for Saints Row 4 by developers Volition Inc. The DLC is a special costume pack which dresses your favorite characters up in, quite frankly, ridiculous anime-styled costumes complete with equally absurd anime-style weapons. Here’s what the DLC anime costume pack’s blurb on Steam reads:

“Finally, the fantasy of Eastern cultural happiness can be yours! Get hair defying the elements of winds! Slice many of the people of bad with Braver Sword! Kaiju-XL makes little of foes with speed and curiosity! Also dress up clothing changes any Street of 3 Holy Man a beholding wonder!”

The pack is comes with what appear to be Cloud’s buster sword fron Final Fantasy 7 and a Kaju-XL rifle. The Saints Row 4 anime costume pack DLC sells on Steam at £1.49.

What are your thoughts on the all new DLC? Do you think the light-hearted nature of the pack takes away from the games inherent “badass” factor, or is the lighter attitude welcome?

You have to give it to the Third Street Saints – they’ve certainly come up in the world. From GTA clone to an outright romp in insanity to fighting aliens to avoid extinction, the Saints Row franchise is currently unlike anything in the gaming industry today. And after the amazing Saints Row IV, news of a new game has already begun to arrive.

Actor Jay Mohr, who played Dane Vogel in Saints Row 2 (and was subsequently cut from Saints Row IV), tweeted recently that he was “About to do my voice over work for new Saints Row video game”. This could be for DLC, perhaps something featuring the Ultor Corporation or at least Vogel’s lost cameo. It certainly seems possible. Deep Silver has yet to comment when asked by GameSpot for clarification though.

Nonetheless, it could just as easily be for a brand new game. Voice work can be done as early or as late as necessary for a game. At this point, what do you think it could be? We’re hoping for Saints Row 5 but we’d just as easily be satisfied with another DLC.

If you’ve been waiting for your next hit of Saints Row IV DLC, especially after Enter The Dominatrix, you’re in luck – How the Saints Save Christmas is next in line and involves the Third Street Saints embarking on a quest full of festive cheer. That is to say, they go around licking candy canes, ringing bells and finding letters to deliver to Santa.

Xbox 360 Achievements has the goods on Achievements that can be earned in-game. Check them out below, but be warned of spoilers for different missions and location.

…A Saint Gets a Gun (5G)
Ring all the bells in town in ‘Miracle on 3rd Street’.

How Many Licks Does it Take? (15G)
Lick the candy cane barricade all the way through in ‘The Fight Before Christmas’.

Get that Kid to a Psychologist (5G)
Find all the snowmen vignettes in the North Pole.

Dear Santa (5G)
Find all the letters to Santa in the holiday missions.

A Very Genki Holiday (10G)
Complete all instances of Genki Holiday.

Make a List, Check it Twice (10G)
Complete all instances of Naughty and Nice.

There are also four secret Achievements worth a total of 50 gamer points. You’ll need to play to find out what they’re about. Saints Row IV: How the Saints Save Christmas will retail for $6.99 and releases on December 11th for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Indomitable – 10G
Complete ‘Meet the Dominatrix’ without dying.

Rigging the Race – 10G
Destroy all the rival pony carts in ‘At the Races’.

Health Inspector – 10G
Destroy all the green polyps inside Paul in ‘Pop His Top’.

Bow to the Boss! – 15G
Kill the Dominatrix in ‘Escape the Dominatrix’.

Friend of the Raptors – 20G
Complete all five missions.

Hello Little Friend – 5G
Get 250 kills with the Minigun.

OMGWTFBBQ – 5G
Get 100 kills with the Flamethrower.

Ultimate Hot Potato – 5G
Get 100 kills with the Grenade Launcher.

Secret Achievements

Walking the Dinosaur – 10G
Spent 30 minutes with Chicken Ned’s prehistoric ancestor.

Saints Row IV: Enter the Dominatrix will be releasing on October 22nd in North America and October 23rd in Europe for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

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ImmortalSin, along with MrScratch and BadMadScientist, have created such a mod. This means you can finally experience the world of the Saints through the eyes of the boss (or the President of the US, whichever title suits you better). A few glitches are apparent, but otherwise, the game doesn’t look so bad from the first person view. How awesome is it to punch some one right in the damn face? Quite awesome. Look for the mod to be improved with future updates.

As for Saints Row IV, you can check out review for the same here. We found it quite good – how about you? And would you be willing to revisit it with this mod? Let us know below.

“We’re all hardcore gamers at Volition, and at the end of the day I don’t care how much a developer spent on a game – it doesn’t matter to me. Its $60 of my money either way, so I don’t care if he only spent $80 million versus $200 million. What’s the best game – that’s what’s going to get my money. But that makes it really tough, because in my opinion gamers buy fewer games because of these $60 price points. If I’m going to buy six games a year then I’m probably just going to buy six of those $200 million games and call it a day – I don’t have to worry about anything else.”

He went on to add that this phenomenon forces game developers to be more conservative:

“You can’t really innovate much any more, because the games are so expensive publishers don’t want you to take chances. That means you’ve got to do the best you possibly can and spend a ton of money or you’re going to do things that possibly won’t be the best they can be, in which case people won’t buy it and they’ll just go buy the game that did cost all that money.”

But, Boone acknowledged that with the incoming next gen console boom, there is hope for change:

“But now with all these different sorts of platforms – even with next gen now – I’m hopeful that this means they can come up with different price points. It’s certainly the implication from what we’re hearing from Microsoft and Sony – that there’s more ways to distribute games and more ways to price games.”

How do you feel about current console pricing? Let us know in the comments below.

Speaking to OXM, Boone stated that, “The fact that they have had experience, and understand what it means to perform destruction, and what kind of compromises you actually have to make – maximising the opportunities that it presents from a design standpoint. I think you almost by definition have to be someone who has some experience in destruction so yeah, I’d totally be giving it up to DICE, if I could choose anyone.”

Given DICE’s experience with destruction in its video games, especially the upcoming Battlefield 4 which implements real-time reshaping of its levels for tactical supremacy, it seems like a good choice. Boone also remared about the “smarter” destruction of Frostbite compared to Volition’s GeoMod. “In Red Faction, I could destroy every single bit of wall I wanted to. In Bad Company, I could destroy one part of wall, but the outer edges would stay. And the gamer didn’t care.

“They just thought ‘I shot that wall and it blew up and that’s amazing.’ Not ‘I shot the wall right there and there’s a hole right there.’ Because DICE made that one compromise, everything else looked amazing. And I think that was a smart call, frankly.”

Battlefield 4 will be releasing on October 29th in North America for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, with next generation versions due in November for PS4 and Xbox One.

And who are the lucky candidates? Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington will be available in the Presidential Pack to those who pre-order and purchase the game by August 22nd – with the official release on August 20th for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. You can also pick up two other bonus skins, namely the Iron Rogue and Queen Amazonia.

Of course, those who pre-order the game will receive the Commander in Chief Edition for Saints Row IV. You should also pre-order the game because it’s friggin’ awesome, fun and above all, one of the best games of the year. Check out our review for the game here.

Simply put, games can stop trying to be super-serious and just be fun. Games can stop being art and revel in bad-assery, humour and outright chicanery. And in doing so, Saints Row IV showcases just why games are art in the first place – because they allow us experiences we would never be able to have otherwise.

The start of the game is fairly simple and first-time players will be introduced to the crux of the Saints Row franchise quick. It’s the campaign that starts five years later, when the leader of the Third Street Saints ascends to the highest position in the United States, namely the Presidency, that really kickstarts the story. Kinzie Kensington, Oleg, Pierce Washington, Viola, Benjamin mutha-f**king King and Keith David are along for the ride with plenty of new and returning characters.

In between solving the world’s problems with a button press here and there, it all seems peaceful enough. That is, until the evil Zinyak and alien Zin Empire invade the Earth, laying siege to the White House and kidnapping your friends before trapping you in a virtual world. As the game progresses, your priorities will shift from escaping the simulation to ultimately defeating Zinyak.

"In the virtual Steel Port, nearly every aspect of the old game has been overhauled. "

Let’s make a couple of things clear from the outset: Yes, you’re back in Steelport. However, the game has been entirely redesigned to accommodate the new features, enemies and transportation you’ll be requiring. Drive-by missions and Trafficking are no longer part of your prerogative. You’ll be pushed and pulled in multiple directions and realities in Saints Row IV. The best comparison we can come up with is Rockstar Games using the same engine for GTA III to create Vice City and San Andreas. The basic groundwork has already been laid by Saints Row The Third and Saints Row IV builds on it like there’s no tomorrow.

In the virtual Steel Port, nearly every aspect of the old game has been overhauled. You’ll come across five towers in the city, which can be ascended and ultimately conquered for Respect – the equivalent of Experience Points – and Cache – which is essentially money within the game. Conquering the towers is also the easiest way to collect Code Fragments that will upgrade your powers.

The powers of Saints Row IV may remind you of Radical Entertainment’s Prototype series. Hell, the gliding animation looks the same for crying out loud. But when you’re running on water or speeding up through a busy lane as the sheer wind force causes cars to fly off the road, or when you leap into the air for the first time, clearing small buildings like they’re nothing, or running up walls and bouncing between them (which will come into play during the Insurance Fraud missions), you’ll feel the difference. Saints Row IV is a faster, more fluid and hilariously awesome take on Prototype’s powers. The amazing part? That’s just for the basic movement.

"Powers can also be combined for devastating effects. Suppose you want to shoot an Iceball at enemies and then leap up into the air for a giant stomp that will shatter them all at once?"

You also have control over six other powers, including Telekinesis, Fireball, Stomp and Death From Above (a dive bomb). Each power has its own element, which can be switched during play, and each has their own benefits. The Fireball can become an Iceball and freeze targets, allowing them to take double damage. Telekinesis can be used to hurl enemies and objects as well to sap the life out of enemies or turn them into living conduits for electricity. Death From Above…well, we’ll let you discover what that can do when fully powered up, but needless to say, it beats Prototype’s dive bomb by a light year.

Powers can also be combined for devastating effects. Suppose you want to shoot an Iceball at enemies and then leap up into the air for a giant stomp that will shatter them all at once? Or maybe you want to levitate your enemies all at once with the Stomp’s Gravity element and then launch Fireballs at them, with the Explosion upgrade passing the combustion from one enemy to the next in a chain reaction akin to Satan’s ladder? How about just rushing around and straight up bashing enemies with super-powered grapples while bursting with electricity? It’s all here, and many more wicked combinations await your input.

Conquering virtual Steel Port isn’t just about becoming more powerful though, just as gaining the best powers isn’t simply about completing Activities and collecting Code Fragments. You also need to complete various Loyalty and Side missions along with the basic story quests. While the story missions will revolve around freeing your crew members and ultimately taking on Zinyak, the Loyalty and side missions allow you to unlock new weapons, super powered homies, new allies that can only exist within the simulation, different upgrades to your powers, new elements and much more. You’ll also learn a fair bit about each character and their motivations, so the Loyalty missions double up as a wonderful character bonding exercise (except if all the characters were sociopaths).

"From the good ol’ Desert Eagle to the Zin arsenal to the Dubstep Gun, which busts out different tunes depending on the clothes you wear, and the Singularity Gun that fires miniature black holes, you won't whine about a lack of wallop in Saints Row IV’s firearms."

The side missions interweave within the different Activities in the simulation. In order to control properties, you’ll need to take part in different hacking mini-games. Trail-blazing now involves you running around at high speeds and hitting the targets in time while the Rift missions have you both platforming and eliminating targets using Telekinesis and participating in Temple Run-like romps to the finish line. Mayhem missions have been expanded upon to include Tanks, Telekinesis, Stomping, Mechs and even regular Mayhem using weapons.

Virus Injections act as Horde-mode like missions that have you taking on numerous waves of enemies. You can also take up Assassination missions to face off against super-powered foes that will test your mettle until you outright start bum-rushing them with super-powered throws, taking the fight to the skyscrapers for breathing room and engaging in whacked out superhuman clashes. Perhaps the only boring activity in the game is one in which you must hijack different vehicles around the city and deliver them to a specific location. This isn’t even because it’s boring on its own – the rest of the game is just on a whole other, jacked-up level that it makes you feel that way.

Did we mention guns? There are plenty of guns as well. From the good ol’ Desert Eagle to the Zin arsenal to the Dubstep Gun, which busts out different tunes depending on the clothes you wear, and the Singularity Gun that fires miniature black holes, you won’t whine about a lack of wallop in Saints Row IV’s firearms.

"Perhaps best of all, the addition of the super powers and new weapons never gives you an entirely overwhelming demeanour."

You’ll even be able to pick up any Energy Sabre to outright disintegrate enemies with a single slice. Upgrading guns is also handled much more efficiently in SR IV. Rather than spending money and powering up a gun, one level at a time, you can choose whether to increase a gun’s recoil reduction and damage or invest in powerful elemental effects like Acid Rounds that do damage over time or Explosive Shells that send foes flying.

Perhaps best of all, the addition of the super powers and new weapons never gives you an entirely overwhelming demeanour. You’re still very much vulnerable to damage in your state, and there are no shields or defensive barriers to protect you. Your foes aren’t messing around either – from the normal police officers to Zinyak soldiers and super-powered Lieutenants and Wardens, you’ll also face off against UFOs and Alien Tanks along with some mechanized foes.

The odds can be overcome, but for the most part, you’ll be better off running and weaving in and out of surroundings to disperse of crowds rather than staying in one spot. Volition even took a page out of Assassin’s Creed, with a golden CID unit that runs around the city and can be destroyed to bring your Notoriety down to zero.

"You can take part in Professor Genki's murderous game show. You can do so much in so little time and still have a blast that it's exhausting."

But this is all about Saints Row IV on an extrinsic level. We haven’t even scratched the surface on the amount of references, nods, surprises, winks, homages, set-pieces, plot, and missions and marvelously messed up moments that constitute the entire game. For a game that is essentially nothing but a “glorified expansion pack”, there is so much more to the core gameplay experience of Saints Row IV than to The Third.

You’ll still find plenty to occupy your time even if you finish the main quest. You can collect audio logs for various characters to learn about their back-stories and what brought them to the dance in deep space. You can traverse the city and destroy Zinyak statues for Cache and Respect. You can hijack a space craft with a homie and surf on it before crashing into the streets.

You can hear wrestler Christopher Daniels hosting the Rock genre’s radio station. You can complete activities at different challenge levels, namely Gold, Silver and Bronze. You can complete challenges within the game to earn more Respect – pretty much anything from blowing up UFOs to killing aliens will help. You can take part in Professor Genki’s murderous game show. You can do so much in so little time and still have a blast that it’s exhausting.

"So where does Saints Row IV falter? There are only a few bugs, but one of them was horrific that it nearly caused me to smash my keyboard in anger. "

So where does Saints Row IV falter? There are only a few bugs, but one of them was horrific that it nearly caused me to smash my keyboard in anger. Needless to say, the game seemingly heeded my call and didn’t repeat it. You’ll find a few graphical glitches here and there, along with some animation and AI hiccups (which are currently being addressed and should be absent when the game hits retail on August 20th). We also find it kind of heart-breaking that Whored mode has been taken out. Say what you will about how tacked on it was, but it was wonderfully demented and offered up an ever-bizarre array of challenges. The Virus Injection missions somehow substitute for it but it just doesn’t feel the same.

For a game that allows so much more avenue for powers and upgrades, we’re happy that Saints Row IV can scale so well. You’ll never feel over-powered but you’ll always be able to take the fight to your foes. However, around the end-game, you’re pretty much equipped to take on everything. That’s not to say that you won’t be challenged – and rest assured, that the last few missions are insane – but the general emergency response in the simulation to your antics won’t be posing a threat. We also love the new Vehicle Delivery system, which is in itself a nod to The Matrix, but we miss bo-dukin’ into vehicles like before. With the new Super Speed power, it just isn’t as easy anymore. At least you can travel faster than any of the vehicles in the game.

A note on the music and voice acting: Excellent, as always, especially the serious instrumentals and background score accompanying missions. The radio song selection is amazing as well, and includes classics like Paula Abdul and The Wild Pair’s Opposites Attract, Haddaway’s What is Love, Aerosmith’s I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing and many more.

"What else can be said about a game like this? It may not be the Game of the Year but the other blockbusters are officially on notice. "

Every character here knows their role, and the Saints once again have amazing dialogue to accompany their every action. Not many games make you feel like a created character is actually the protagonist, the President of the United States or the leader of a dread gang rather than, well, just someone you created a few minutes ago (that too, all of the above at once). But Saints Row IV achieves that effect perfectly, and offers enough character customization, wardrobe options and accessories to personalize your “puckish rogue”.

Also, JB Blanc as Zinyak? Instant classic.

What else can be said about a game like this? It may not be the Game of the Year but the other blockbusters are officially on notice. If Saints Row IV can bring an unforgettable adventure that’s more fun than a barrel of donkey beer on the back of a dragon, then the rest of this year’s releases have their work cut out for them. Will Saints Row IV stand out in the sea of open-world titles to release this year, including Grand Theft Auto V and Watch_Dogs? Most definitely and if you’ve been wondering what the fuss is about the series, now is as good a time as ever to take part in psycho-circus of fun. If absolutely nothing else, Saints Row IV begs the question – how will Deep Silver – Volition possibly top this?

This game was reviewed on PC.

Booned stated that, “I think of this along the lines of motion pictures. I just can’t imagine Hollywood suddenly deciding that movies like The Hangover shouldn’t come out because it is immature. Sure, it may not win an Oscar, but it sure is funny as hell and amazingly entertaining. People won’t all feel the same way about that movie as I do, but that doesn’t mean the movie shouldn’t be made.

Phillip stated that, “[Bleszinski] said he felt SR would’ve been better if it had been a Michael Mann/Heat-esque bank robbery type of game. Somebody else already makes that game and spends four times as much money to make it with a staff four times our size.

“We need to make Saints Row, not a game someone else is already making. As Jim said earlier, you wouldn’t want to see the same movie over and over again; sometimes you need a drama and sometimes you need a comedy, and Saints Row delivers something that players clearly want and aren’t getting elsewhere.”

As for the PC port of the upcoming Saints Row IV, Boone said that Volition was going to deliver “the same level of quality” since they had been working on the same throughout the development cycle. Saints Row IV is set to release on August 20th in North America and August 23rd in Europe for Xbox 360, PC and PS3.